How sincere is Swindle's
affection for Hawaii?

In his May 1 letter, Orson Swindle finally expressed an opinion with which I could agree: Hawaii's cultural diversity and our aloha for ancestors are some of our greatest strengths. I share his outrage at the recent desecration of the seven Oahu cemeteries which -- based on the violent anti-Hawaiian imagery of the graffiti -- should be classified as a hate crimes against Hawaiians as well as an affront to the dead.

Does Swindle's abhorrence to the cemetery desecration mean he supports efforts to protect kanaka maoli burial sites from desecration by developers and the military?

Is he as outraged about the $42 million, 237-unit military housing project under way at Pu'u Hawaii Loa (the Kaneohe Marine Base), where the ancestors of Hawaiian people are buried?

Will he stand on his military record and protest when missile launches commence atop kanaka maoli bones on Kauai?

Will he join with Hawaii's "diverse cultural and ethnic makeup" at Makua, where several heiau and hundreds of burials are located, to demand that the Army stop its desecration of these sites, clean up its mess and return the aina to kanaka maoli care?

Nah, I no think so.

Kiyoshi Matsuda

Maui also should host
UH Rainbow football game

Congratulations to Lenny and Marcia Klompus and their imaginative crew, Mayor Lingle's administration and the Maui County Council for having the vision and guts to bring a major football event to Maui.

Unlike the heavily taxpayer-subsidized Pro Bowl, the college all-star Hula Bowl has long been tolerated as a wayward stepchild by the state public sector. That won't be true for Maui County's government and business interests, who will put their money where the state's mouth was but money wasn't.

Next question: Will the University of Hawaii take the hint? How about scheduling an early or late season Rainbow Warrior football game at Maui's expanded War Memorial Stadium in 1998? Maybe Rainbow fans on Oahu would like a weekend on Maui to go with their football fix.

Fred Rohlfing
Kula, Maui
(Via the Internet)

Okinawan governor blames
U.S. military for all ills

The main thrust of a recent speech by Masahide Ota, governor of Okinawa, was that the presence of the U.S. military on his island was the sole cause of Okinawa's problems.

While concern for Okinawa's situation has some merit, attributing all its problems to the presence of our military and "the inconvenience with being hosts to a huge foreign military base" is nothing short of self denial or a convenient memory loss. Most of Asia is familiar with previously being "hosts to a huge foreign military base."

His inflammatory reference to the 111 rapes since 1972 -- committed by military personnel or dependents -- seeks to intensify these distasteful violations of dignity. I believe that in situations where Americans were accused, tried and convicted, apologies were forthcoming (a normal occurrence in Japanese courts) and victims or their kin were recompensed.

During the "Bataan Death March," the Japanese Imperial Army systematically decapitated, bayonetted or clubbed to death approximately 400 officers and non-coms of the 91st Regiment in just a few hours.

Has Ota expressed similar outrage over this? The word "atrocity" or any appropriate euphemism for those horrible crimes against humanity is consistently absent from any official Japanese government pronouncement or historical record.

Donald Barnhart
First Sergeant
U.S. Marine Corps (Retired)

Hawaii must be protected
from ballistic missiles

Hawaii residents should be paying serious attention to the progress of Senate Bill No. 7. We should be aware of this vital piece of legislation and urge our congressional delegation to support the establishment of a National Missile Defense System that will be capable of protecting Hawaii from ballistic missile attack.

Even without the threat of ballistic missile attack, Hawaii's leaders must take the lead in matters affecting the Pacific basin because these matters will affect us directly.

A war between North and South Korea may not have much impact on, say, Montana or Vermont, but would significantly affect Hawaii. Obviously, in the event of such a war, South Korean tourism would come to a complete halt as would most normal business dealings with South Korean companies.

Moreover, Japanese tourism would be adversely affected by a war between North and South Korea, to say nothing of a Chinese attack on Taiwan.

Tom Pico Jr.

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Same-sex archive

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